Press Release

Tributes.com Launches as the Most Comprehensive Online Resource for Local and National Obituary News&Personal Tributes

BOSTON, MA (September 22, 2008) — Tributes.com, an online resource for local and national obituary news, officially launched today – forever changing the way people access obituaries and memorialize those who have been important to them. Through one centralized web destination, Tributes.com makes obituary and memorial service information easily and reliably searchable, while creating a safe place where families and communities can come together to share the treasured stories of those who have passed.

Tributes.com has been operating as a beta site since it became funded in February 2008. Hundreds of thousands of unique users have already come to the site to find information such as when and where a service will be held, or to read obituaries and leave notes of remembrance.

Tributes.com is strategically aligning itself with funeral homes across the country to provide national distribution for the obituaries they publish. Tributes.com will supply funeral homes with a wide range of personalized, online, multi-media memorial products they can offer to families to help them more effectively capture and immortalize the artifacts, stories and sentiments that are discovered and shared at the time of a death.

Internet visionary and Tributes.com founder Jeff Taylor forever changed the way we search for jobs when he founded Monster.com, which moved classified “help wanted-ads” from local papers to the Internet. Taylor went on to create an online community for Baby Boomers in 2005 with the social networking website Eons.com.

“I first formulated the idea for Tributes.com after recognizing how popular the obituary section was on Eons.com,” said Taylor. “Around the same time, I found out that my mother was not only a regular reader of the obituary section in her metro daily newspaper, but that she also read the obituaries in her hometown weekly paper on the off chance someone she knew had passed away. It made me recognize the need for an easier method of keeping track of those you care about and a more dynamic and personal way to honor and celebrate lives -- thus was born Tributes.com.”

At Tributes.com users can:

Search and browse more than 83 million current and historical death records dating from the 1930’s to present -- by name or by last known location

Easily and reliably locate funeral service information —and not miss the opportunity to extend condolences to grieving friends and relatives

Build a lasting multimedia tribute to a deceased loved one, and tell their story without limitations

Enrich genealogy by creating online portraits of ancestors to be appreciated across generations and extended families

Add messages and photos to online memory books and read comments left by others

Send tokens of condolence through the Gifts and Charity center

Keep up with notable deaths in the “Today in the News” section

Find helpful articles and commentary on dealing with loss and grieving

Join grieving groups to share experiences and receive support from others in similar circumstances

Sophisticated search and database technology allows users of Tributes.com to receive e-mail alerts to notify them when an obituary is posted to the site that matches criteria they set based on geography, name, education, workplace or military duty. By setting up these alerts, friends and family can have the peace of mind in knowing they will never miss the opportunity to mourn a loss and express their condolences.

“In today’s mobile society, education, marriage and career shifts have caused people to be more geographically dispersed, making it more challenging to maintain relationships than it has been in the past,” notes Elaine Haney, president of Tributes.com. “The Internet has become the glue that keeps our social networks together in this distributed world. Combine that with the fact that adults 50+, the sweet spot of obituary readership, is becoming more technology savvy every day and it is clear that the $750M to $1B newspaper obituary market will migrate online just as all other print classifieds have done.”

Tributes Partnerships

David Kessler, one of the most well-known experts and lecturers on grief and loss today, will serve as Grief Specialist for Tributes.com. David Kessler’s work has been praised by Mother Teresa and Elisabeth Kubler Ross (he co-authored her last two books). He has worked with Anthony Perkins, Michael Landon and industrialist Armand Hammer when they faced their own deaths. David’s books, public seminars and lectures offer invaluable insight to help the dying and their families. These talents will be applied as David facilitates community groups on Tributes.com and assists those who have experienced loss.

1-800-FLOWERS.COM, the world's leading florist and gift shop, is also joining forces with Tributes.com to be their exclusive floral partner, making sympathy flowers and other gift items directly available to consumers on Tributes.com as well as through relationships established with Tributes funeral home partners. “For over 30 years, we have been a trusted resource for families during their time of loss,” said Jim McCann, founder and CEO of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. “The way consumers express themselves at these difficult times is changing and we can help funeral directors, and the community, meet the urgent and personal needs of friends and families who have recently lost a loved one.”

As a first step in an aggressive plan to rapidly expand the distribution of Tributes’ obituary content across the country, Tributes.com and The Wall Street Journal Online have launched a co-branded classified obituaries section on WSJ.com, offering the full complement of Tributes.com features and functions including access to current local and national obituaries across the U.S., the opportunity to create personalized tributes commemorating the lives of loved ones, and an online community providing support during times of loss. As part of the agreement, Tributes.com is also now featuring the Journal’s Remembrances content in its national news area which highlights the stories of notable national figures that have recently passed away. For more information, see the Dow Jones and Company press release released today titled — ‘Wall Street Journal Online and Tributes.com Launch Co-branded Classified Obituary Section’.

About Tributes
Tributes.com is the online resource for current local and national obituary news, lasting personal tributes and online community providing support during times of loss and grieving. Through one centralized national web destination, with over 83 million current and historical death records dating back to the 1930's, Tributes has made obituary and online memorial service information easily accessible so people can come together online and offline to remember and share the treasured stories of the important people in their lives who have passed away. Monster.com and Eons.com founder Jeff Taylor officially launched Tributes.com in February, 2008. Eons, Inc. and Dow Jones & Company are strategic partners in Tributes, Inc. For more information about Tributes.com, please visit our website at www.tributes.com.